After a postponement in the spring, the San Antonio Botanical Garden has finally celebrated the opening of its new event space, The Betty Kelso Center. The LEED-Gold certified building, among the final projects in the garden’s 40th-anniversary capital-improvement campaign, offers 3,500 square feet of indoor space for up to 350 attendees in theater-style seating.
The light-filled, wood-and-glass modern venue also includes a lobby, two green rooms, a full catering kitchen, and audiovisual equipment. Sliding glass doors and a spacious patio lead out to the rest of the 38-acre urban garden, making the new facility especially appealing for groups looking for an indoor-outdoor venue in a warm-weather destination.
The Betty Kelso Center is just one of the spaces available for groups at the Botanical Garden. Right outside the doors of the new building is Greehey Lawn, which can hold up to 720 guests for an alfresco banquet. Elsewhere on the grounds, planners can consider three other outdoor areas: an amphitheater surrounded by wisteria that seats up to 300; the Lucille Halsell Conservatory, where up to 250 people can enjoy dinner in a grass courtyard near a water garden; and the smaller Auld House and patio, a combined indoor-outdoor space for up to 70 guests.
San Antonio Botanical Garden is less than four miles north of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and the River Walk district.
